In the midst of everything else, Amy Winehouse was found dead in her London Home the other day, and I found this bootleg concert audio -- ironically recorded in Norway in 2007 -- at Crooks & Liars that absolutely epitomizes what a brilliant talent she was.
Those who want to judgementalize will of course claim that she got what she deserved, more than she deserved, given how fucked up on drugs and alcohol she was most of the time, but I'd just urge anyone who gets on that track to Back Away.
Winehouse was -- as you can hear from this live audio clip -- an astonishing talent, who literally burst on the scene from "nowhere," and like many others before her, she was gobbled up by it. There are many very talented people who simply cannot handle the world of Fame. That world is always hungry, feeding, destroying lives, manufacturing fantasies. It's not a normal world, populated by normal people just trying to live their lives and do their thing. It demands more than the utmost of you, and if you can't -- or won't -- comply with Its freakish demands, it'll chew you up and swallow the bones.
Amy Winehouse did what she could for as long as she could. And then she couldn't. The rest of us are lucky to have had her music in our lives for as long as we have.
Judge not.... and all that.
Broke my girlfriend's heart, she idolized Amy.
ReplyDeleteThat's true of so many. I'm really surprised at how extensive her fan-base really is. She touched a LOT of people.
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